Bernard Jackman could give you any number of reasons as to why he accepted the offer to coach the Newport Gwent Dragons.

Rescuers are searching for two people missing following an avalanche in the French Alps in which a Dutch snowboarder was killed.

Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

Six mountain climbers have been killed in separate incidents in Italy and France after slabs of ice from frozen waterfalls detached from mountainsides, Alpine rescue authorities said.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today

Ulster 39 Clermont 32: Ulster has enjoyed some spectacular victories in Europe but, surely, none can have matched this lunchtime encounter for excitement, unpredictability and high-class rugby.

Make or break, must win, season-defining – all terms which have been used to describe Ulster’s Champions Cup tie with French giants Clermont Auvergne in Belfast this afternoon.

Catrin Pugh, 22, is believed to be the oldest person in the world to survive such severe burns which ravaged every inch of her body apart from her scalp and the soles of her feet.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

The families of victims killed last year when a suicidal pilot flew an airliner into a mountainside in the French Alps have filed a lawsuit against the US flight school where he was trained.

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

There were more airline deaths worldwide due to deliberate acts in 2015 than from accidental air crashes, for the second year in a row, according to an industry tally.

Investigators of the Russian plane crash in Egypt are “90% sure” the noise heard in the final second of a cockpit recording was an explosion caused by a bomb, a member of the investigation team told Reuters yesterday.

Handholding by a team of professionals and a state of the art chalet with its own chef to look after the family is the secret of a good ski experience, says Catherine Shanahan.

An avalanche in the French Alps has swept seven climbers to their deaths on one of the region’s most popular routes. The avalanche struck three groups of roped climbers, said Pierre Besnard, the prefect of the Hautes-Alpes region.

Mental health stigma remains engrained in Irish society, a survey shows.

A state prosecutor says a co-pilot with a history of depression who crashed a Germanwings airliner into the French Alps had reached out to dozens of doctors ahead of the disaster, a revelation that suggests Andreas Lubitz was seeking advice about an undisclosed ailment.

The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 appeared to have practised a controlled descent on his flight into Barcelona just two hours before he intentionally crashed the A320 jet into a mountainside on the return flight to Duesseldorf, air accident investigators said.

Five years ag,o Federal Aviation Administration officials questioned the mental fitness of the Germanwings pilot who crashed an airliner in the French Alps last month. 

The family of a seven-year-old boy who fell 50m to his death on a skiing holiday in the French Alps have spoken of their “utter devastation”.

A seven-year-old boy has died in a skiing accident while on a family holiday in the French Alps.

Holiday travel chaos looms as French air traffic controllers plan further work stoppages this month

Europe’s air safety regulator says it has found more than 10 incidents in recent years in which Germany appeared lax in following aviation medical requirements, prompting a European Commission investigation that is still under review.

The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 appears to have researched suicide methods and cockpit door security in the days before he flew the plane into the French Alps, killing 150 people.

Just over a week after a Germanwings plane crashed into the French Alps, investigators have finished retrieving human remains from the wreckage.

German daily Bild and French magazine Paris Match said their reporters have been shown a video they say was taken by someone inside the cabin of the doomed plane shortly before it crashed.

What's on telly? This stuff.

A letter written by a woman to the pilots of her flight has gone viral after one of their colleagues shared it on Twitter.

The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 that crashed into the French Alps last week had received treatment for suicidal tendencies several years ago.

The latest on Ian Bailey losing his civil case, the sad news that a man died in London trying to save his brother's life, and how eating chocolate can actually help you lose weight are all part of our evening briefing on the latest and most read content on irishexaminer.com today.

Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz appears to have hidden evidence of an illness from his employers, including having been excused by a doctor from work the day he crashed a passenger plane into a mountain.

Graham Dwyer has been found guilty of the murder of Elaine O’Hara, Paul O’ Connell has been named Six Nations Player of the Tournament, and the remains of the crash vitims from the Germanwings disaster are being removed from the alps. 

All the news you need this lunchtime: 

The Germanwings airline said it is stunned and “utterly baffled” as to why one of its pilots deliberately crashed a plane into the Alps killing himself and 149 other people.

THE picture of a young man, believed to be 28-year-old Andreas Lubitz, sitting calmly beside San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge is a classic image of the proverbial ‘boy next door’.

The families of three Britons killed in the French Alps plane disaster have spoken of their devastating loss.

The latest on the Airbus A320 crash in France, advice to the jury at the Graham Dwyer trial and an upcoming announcement from Henry Shefflin are all part of our evening briefing on the latest and most read content on irishexaminer.com today.